From Software Elden Ring - From Software's new game with writing by GRRM

[NJClaw]

How long does it last? Until death/rest? Are they worth using?

It lasts until you die. They're stronger than some of the best talismans, so they're definitely worth using. I almost always activate Godrick or Radahn rune unless I know I'm going through a platforming challenge soon.

 

[Old Hans]

I have to say I am not a big fan of Caelid. it feels like an MMO zone and the grass draw distance is ridiculously small, which doesnt seem to be a problem in Limgrave

 

[toro]

One thing I've been curious about is do most of you guys invoke the great runes? I've literally never used it, I tend to forget it exists and then my hoarding mentality makes me not want to even when I think about it.

How long does it last? Until death/rest? Are they worth using?

I agree with NJClaw

Great Runes are another design failure. Once activated they should remain active because Rune Arcs are easy to farm while doing PvP but they are expensive and rare when playing solo.

 

[mediocrepoet]

One thing I've been curious about is do most of you guys invoke the great runes? I've literally never used it, I tend to forget it exists and then my hoarding mentality makes me not want to even when I think about it.

How long does it last? Until death/rest? Are they worth using?

I agree with NJClaw

Great Runes are another design failure. Once activated they should remain active because Rune Arcs are easy to farm while doing PvP but they are expensive and rare when playing solo.

That's really it. Basically, if I was concerned about dying, I didn't want to blow the consumable when they're hard to replace in single player and if I wasn't concerned about dying, I didn't feel any need to use a buff. That being said, I had like 80 or 90 of them at the end of the game, so I probably could have messed around with it a bit.

 

[Olinser]

The answer was either significantly limit the amount of flasks you can take in a fight to actually make challenging bosses, significantly reduce the healing from flasks if you chain chug them within a short period, or give them actual good and aggressive AI that prevents the player from healing.

I don't disagree and was actually surprised when I heard that ER carried over the flask system at all. Due to the open world setup and exploration, this is the one time where the single-use healing items (and subsequent farming when you run dry) from Demon's or Bloodborne would have made perfect sense.

Farming? Heck no, this games crafting system is poor enough as it is. Farming would be only for increasing your slots - like OK, you got a recipe for your next ritual pot from the traveling merchant in the new area, go collect these ingredients and he'll give you another pot that you select just like the type of flasks, and then at bonfire you refill it. The pots in this game outside the sleeping pot for enemies vulnerable just feel weak and not worth the trouble it takes to get the ingredients because they just feel wasted on normal enemies, and just aren't effective against bosses unless they're uniquely vulnerable to a particular ailment.

The healing/mana flasks on the same number of charges was an OK system as it at least forces you to make meaningful choices between FP and health, but I wish they'd taken it a step further with bosses, and did something like made boss flasks take up MUCH a more limited number of slots, or make each flask take up more weight so you're having to make a tradeoff between taking more healing, and more mitigation.

Honestly when being summoned, the flasks being cut in half is actually a pretty good balance point for a lot of bosses at appropriate soul level. I have NEVER run out of flasks fighting my own boss whether that's solo, with ash summons, or sunbro summons. But in some of the fights if summoned at a reasonably appropriate level, you DO have to actually take healing into account, and may actually run out if you're running a high FP cost build or playing the tank for a mage/squishy melee. They simply gave you way too much healing and FP restore in the regular game.

Although I DID think that the Raw Meat Dumpling was a huge wasted opportunity (disregarding how broken it is on Mimic if you feel like cheesing bosses) - that would have been a legitimately interesting system of healing for debuff. Every time you chug a flask it increases the level of a debuff like Poison, reduces your damage/stamina, etc. Force the player to make a meaningful tradeoff for constantly chugging up flasks in a boss fight, and possibly alter their playstyle if forced to take too many to try and avoid the negatives, instead of just piling on chunks of damage trying to make them use all of them.

 

[Olinser]

One thing I've been curious about is do most of you guys invoke the great runes? I've literally never used it, I tend to forget it exists and then my hoarding mentality makes me not want to even when I think about it.

How long does it last? Until death/rest? Are they worth using?

I agree with NJClaw

Great Runes are another design failure. Once activated they should remain active because Rune Arcs are easy to farm while doing PvP but they are expensive and rare when playing solo.

It was more of a balance failure than a design failure. Most of the people that I talked to got Godrick's Rune, then went online to see what the other runes could do, and realized that almost all of them were just pure garbage and never even bothered to activate any other one except maybe the max HP one.

Rune Arcs was a very poorly implemented system, and was clearly an attempt to prop up the multiplayer aspect, why the heck do you get a Rune Arc for being summoned? Would have made a heck of a lot more sense to deactivate your rune on death, and then you have to go back to their respective tower to reactivate them again, rather than just arbitrarily using an item you get from MP, where you can't even use the Great Runes!

 

[NJClaw]

Rune Arcs was a very poorly implemented system, and was clearly an attempt to prop up the multiplayer aspect, why the heck do you get a Rune Arc for being summoned? Would have made a heck of a lot more sense to deactivate your rune on death, and then you have to go back to their respective tower to reactivate them again, rather than just arbitrarily using an item you get from MP, where you can't even use the Great Runes!

Going back to a divine tower to reactivate a rune sounds like the worst possible idea. It would be just pointless idle time with no gameplay whatsoever.

The system behind great runes and rune arcs is a souls staple. Both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 3 have a similar mechanic that allows you to gain some kind of benefit if you engage in online multiplayer. The difference being that in DS3 you can only gain an HP boost, while in ER you can choose between a couple of different options. The game also gives you enough rune arcs to use them whenever you need an edge to overcome a difficult encounter or boss, unless you keep dying 30 times against every single boss.

 

[Efe]

to be fair if you are going thru a boss repeatedly instead of taking a break elsewhere, you could go thru rune arcs quite fast.
I play with a friend and we call each other for every catacomb, etc. never lacked rune arcs

 

[Funposter]

Doing Caleid as we speak, which means i'm finally close to one of the meme bosses everybody has been crying about.

patched lmao, not the true AIDS launch experience

 

[Bigg Boss]

They patched it back though didn't they?

 

[Lyric Suite]

Didn't need to do this but it's been a while since i posted a video and figured i had to record something:

 

[perfectslumbers]

They patched it back though didn't they?

He's still heavily nerfed from launch, but he got a small buff yeah

 

[Kjaska]

Whenever I think about the Great Runes, I have to think back to booty blasting Ganon in BotW and how significant the runes there felt. Like, I actually felt something during that fight. I felt that all those challenges during the game actually prepared me to take on such a powerful enemy. That my mastery of the game has improved.

In Elden Ring killing the shardbearers doesn't matter at all. They should have just ditched the Great Runes altogether and made the Rune Arc give you an hp boost. Make the Divine Towers give you some lore shit instead, who cares.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Whenever I think about the Great Runes, I have to think back to booty blasting Ganon in BotW and how significant the runes there felt. Like, I actually felt something during that fight. I felt that all those challenges during the game actually prepared me to take on such a powerful enemy. That my mastery of the game has improved.

In Elden Ring killing the shardbearers doesn't matter at all. They should have just ditched the Great Runes altogether and made the Rune Arc give you an hp boost. Make the Divine Towers give you some lore shit instead, who cares.

I actually think they should've kept the great rune equip slot as is and then just made it active but you have to pick one, like a divine power talisman slot thing. Alternatively, they could've made them do even less and then just had you collect them and have all of the effects active, even if some of them could be toggled between your choice of effects or something.

They still could have had a reward for multiplayer whether just runes or some other type of item that wasn't tied to great rune activation.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Been on a major minor boss kill-streak today, killed like 7 or 8. Then ran into a regular mob that's tougher than most of them, the revenant piece of shit in Laskyar Ruins. Teleporting, poisong spitting, attack spamming, 3 mile insta jumping coont.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Rats drop rune arcs as well but the chance is pathetic. Little call back to DS1 when the rats dropped humanity.

 

[toro]

Didn't need to do this but it's been a while since i posted a video and figured i had to record something:

Nice. Now do the two crucible knights

 

[HumanTotemPole]

Didn't need to do this but it's been a while since i posted a video and figured i had to record something:

Nice. Now do the two crucible knights

That stonecatdog jump attack animation still cracks me up everytime. Who the fuck thought that looked good? Looks like they're about to tpose and glitch out through the ceiling on the ascent.

 

[toro]

 

[Ivan]

I must have missed 90% of the NPCs on my playthrough lol

 

[Kjaska]

please, dude. I'm still reeling from the ending of her quest. FroSo niggers just won't let you have ANYTHING in this game.

 

[Werdnicus]

THE LOATHSOME DUNG EATER

 

[Andnjord]

Been on a major minor boss kill-streak today, killed like 7 or 8. Then ran into a regular mob that's tougher than most of them, the revenant piece of shit in Laskyar Ruins. Teleporting, poisong spitting, attack spamming, 3 mile insta jumping coont.

Wait until you find what I personally named the Alley of not-tasteful Rape in Haligtree. At least you'll get a shiny bauble out of it.

Speaking of which, finally finished all but Malenia and the Ashen Leyendell and endgame bosses. I managed to beat Malekeit solo (was getting stonewalled hard by him for several days then took a break from the game for a week, came back and destroyed him on the first try just just after lauching the game, funny how that stuff works) but Mogg made me nope out of my personal no-ash summons rule for the major bosses when his second phase came up and I just didn't feel like dealing with another flying, fire spitting twirling blender. Sorry Mogg, you never got a fair fight.

Haligtree itself though...I swear I've died more in this area than probably ALL the legacy dungeons combined in this game, and certainly more than any area in a Souls game. When I look back at it there's not that much scary that I didn't deal with before, but the combination of enemy placement, high damage and environmetal hazards just broke me.

But the death count is only gonna go higher now:

Spoiler

Let the slaughter commence!

 

[Kjaska]

I managed to beat Malekeit solo (was getting stonewalled hard by him for several days then took a break from the game for a week, came back and destroyed him on the first try just just after lauching the game, funny how that stuff works)

Rest is an important part in creating/strengthening synapses, which is why it's more efficient to try a difficult boss a handful of times, go to sleep, then try the next morning compared to beating your head against the wall with 60+ consecutive attempts.

Or you can just get lucky with the RNG on the AI of these anime blenders.

 

[Wunderbar]